Crop conditioner with baffle of fluffer means

ABSTRACT

A crop conditioner with a swath or windrow fluffer freely suspended to yield to crop forces and is further made up of a plurality of separate baffle members selectively adjustable and laterally interconnectable.

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France 3,241,300 3/1966 Fell et a1....................56/DlG.1

[ Assigneez Defies p y Moline L 3,039,256 6/1962Witt...........................56/DlG. 1

[2 Filedi 1970 Primary Examinerbouis G. Mancene [21] APPL NO; 79,961Assistant Examiner.l. A. Oliff Attorney-H. Vincent Harsha, Harold M.Knoth, William A. Murray, John M. Nolan and Raymond L. Hollister [30]Foreign Application Priority Data March 9, 1970 Germany....,........P 2011 013.8

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10 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures PATENTEDAUB 1 I972- sum 2 BF 2 FIG. 4

JNVENTOR J. L. TAVERNE CROP CONDITIONER WITH BAFFLE OF FLUFFER MEANSBACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Crop conditioners with fluffers are wellknown, the fluffer being conventionally a bafile or deflector adapted tointercept and redirect the crop as trajected rearwardly and upwardly bythe conditioner rolls, the

purpose of the deflector being to fluff the crop so that when it returnsto the ground it is in better condition for curing. Prior art deflectorsare conventionally fixed or selectively adjustable but once set cannotchange position as the crop varies in density, weight, moisture contentetc., so that a given deflector setting is not entirely suitable forvarying crop conditions, especially, where, as is typical, cropconditions vary not only from swath to swath but within the same swathor stand. Consequently it is necessary for the operator to make frequentmanual adjustments or compromise with one adjustment.

SUMMARY OF THEINVENTION According to the present invention, the baffleor deflector means is suspended in such manner as to yield for freemovement back and forth in response to varying forces imparted by thechanging nature of the trajected crop, yielding relatively slightly tolight crop and relatively extensively to heavier crop, resulting in theformation of desirable fluffing as the crop is returned to-the ground.Moreover, the baffle means is constructed as a plurality of separateplate-like members or panels disposed in side-by-side relation andindividually suspended so as to be independently freely swingablewhereby to accommodate different forces in the lateral width of thetrajected crop path. Also, the transverse length of the baffle means maybe adjusted by adjusting the relative position of the baffle members.Further, certain of the members are selectively connectible to swing inunison and thus to increase their resistance to swinging under impact byextra-heavy crop.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side view, largelyschematic, of a typical conditioner as equipped with a preferredembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective of the baffle means adjusted for awide setting.

FIG. 4 is a similar view but showing the baffle members adjusted for anarrower setting or for increased resistance.

DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The general characteristics of atypical crop conditioner will be recognized from FIGS. 1 and 2 withoutdetailed description. The basic machine has a draft tongue 12 forconnection to a tractor for advance over a field. In some instances, thecrop will have been previously cut, as by a mower, and will besubsequently picked up and conditioned. In other cases, the condi tionerincludes harvesting means for cutting the crop and forthwith directingit to the conditioner means. The present illustration is of the lattertype of machine and a typical cutter is shown at 14, including a surfaceor ramp over which the cut crop is moved by a reel 15 to a pair ofhorizontal, rotatably cooperative conditioner rolls 16, 17, which may beof either the crusher or crimper type.

The nature of the action on the crops is such that the conditioned cropis trajected upwardly and rearwardly for return to the ground forcuring, as is well known, and the return of the crop to the ground isachieved in part by crop control means including baffle or deflectormeans 18. In the present instance, this means is carried betweenrearwardly extending left and right side sheets 20 and 22 which serve asside supports. These sheets are respectively pivoted or hinged at theirfront ends to the frame of the machine at 24 and 26, and theirpositions, as to lateral spacing of their rear ends-0r rearwardconvergence-are selectively settable by means of adjustable means 27. Bythis means, the cutter 14 may cut a rather wide swath and,.if the sidesheets are convergent as shown, the return of the crops to the groundwill be in the form of a windrow narrower than the swath. Conversely,the side sheets may be adjusted to parallelism and the return to theground will be about the width of the cut swath. Of course, a variety ofadjustments may be made, all of which is known in the art as to sidesheets per se.

The side sheets or supports 20 and 22 respectively carry mounts 28 and30 adjacent to their rear ends for carrying a transverse support 32,which may be a shaft, rod or the like. This rod is slidable in themounts 28 and 30 to accommodate adjustment of the side sheets 20 and 22.The baffle or deflector means is suspended from this rod or shaft 32and, in a preferred embodiment, takes the form of a plurality ofseparate panels or plate-like members 34, 36, 38 and 40, the first twoproviding a set or group at one side of an abutment 33 on the rod 32 andthe latter two forming a similar set at the opposite side of theabutment.

Fundamentally, the baffle means is carried by the conditioner so as tobe freely yieldable back and forth in response to crop forces astrajected crop impinges on the crop-intercepting baffle means. Apreferred way of suspending the baffle means is, as shown here, pivotingof the baffle means for free swinging. To this end, the baffle member 36has an upper end of inverted U shape, as at 42, and the baffle member 38is similarly formed at 44. The member 36 has a plurality of holes 46therein for selectively receiving pins 48, and each pin is retained by acotter 50. A similar arrangement is provided for the member 38. It willbe clear that the pins 48 pass below and not through the rod or shaft32, and hence the members are freely swingable about the transversehorizontal axis established by the rod or shaft.

The upper end of the left-hand outermost baffle member has a hook orU-shaped upper end, but the one bight of the U is brought closely backto the body of the member or panel so that the latter cannot escape fromthe rod or shaft. A like formation exists at 54 for the right-hand outerbafile member 40. A further feature here is that the U-shaped formationsat 42 and 44 are of larger dimension than those at 52 and 54, so that,as shown in FIG. 4, the smaller U-shaped portions may telescoperespectively into the larger portions 42 and 44, which is accomplishedby removing the outer pins 48 and re-inserting them in inward holes 46.As said above, the pins 48 pass below the shaft 32 and thus retain themembers 36 and 38 from accidental dislodgment from the shaft.

The telescopic arrangement just described provides several advantages.First, the lateral length of the bafile means may be adjusted inaccordance with adjustment of the side sheets and 22 about theirrespective pivots 24 and 26 as controlled by the braces and 27.Additionally, the slightest overlap between, for example, the members 34and 36 serves as interconnecting means for causing the paired orneighboring members to swing in unison, thus increasing or combiningtheir resistance to crop forces. This same thing is true, of course, asto the members 38 and 40.

In operation, and in anticipation of generally light crop and a widereturn of the crop to the ground, the members 34, 36, 38 and 40 may beset as in FIG. 3, in which .the maximum continuous width or length ofthe baffle means is achieved and in which each member is individuallyswingable and thus accommodates itself to the portion of the trajectedcrop path impinging thereupon; that is, if crop forces vary across thewidth of the crop path, one member may yield more or less than theother. If the crop is especially heavy, the members 34 and 36 and thoseat 38 and 40 may be interconnected by the simple expedient ofoverlapping the respective members of a pair by shifting the pins 48 andtelescoping the outer members into the respective inward members. Ifdesired, each of the members 34 and 40 may have a hole 53 for receivingthe associate pin 48 to effect an interconnection among the pairedmembers irrespective of the positions of the side sheets 20 and 22.

Iclaim:

l. A crop conditioner adapted to advance over a field and having cropgathering and conditioning means including a pair of horizontaltransverse rolls cooperatively rotatable to traject crops upwardly andrearwardly for return to the ground, a pair of rearwardly extending sidesupports spaced laterally apart behind the rolls, and transverselyextending baffle means disposed between the side supports in the path ofthe trajected crops so as to change the trajectory, characterized inthat the baffle means is freely pivotally suspended at only its upperportion between the side supports to hang freely into the crop path in anormally vertically extending position and yieldable to swing freelyfrom and back to said vertical position under varying forces imposed onsaid baffle means by the trajected crops.

2. The invention defined in claim 1, further characterized in that atransverse support extends between and is carried by the side supportsand the baffle means depends from and is pivoted to the transversesupport for free back and forth swinging.

3. The invention defined in claim 2, further characterized in that thebaffle means comprises a plurality of separate plate-like membersdisposed in side-by-side relation and independently pivoted to thetransverse support for individual free swinging.

4. The invention defined in claim 3, further characterized in thatcertain of the members are connectible to each other for swinging inunison.

5. The invention defined in claim 4, further characterized in that theconnectible members are relatively laterally shiftable on the transversesupport into partially overlapping relation to each other for swingingin unison.

6. The invention defined in claim 5, further characterized in that eachmember of a pair of connectible memb rs has an u ger end of inverteg Ushape hgoked over t e transver support and sat upper en 5 are relativelydifferently dimensioned so that one can be telescoped into the other.

7. The invention defined in claim 3, further characterized in that themembers are selectively and relatively laterally adjustable along thetransverse support so as to vary the horizontal length of the bafflemeans.

8. The invention defined in claim 7, further characterized in that theside supports are hingedly connected at their forward ends to theconditioner for selective relative adjustability toward and away fromeach other so as to vary the lateral distance between their rear ends.

9. The invention defined in claim 3, further characterized in that thetransverse support has an intermediate abutment thereon and the membersare grouped in sets respectively at each side of the abutment.

10. The invention defined in claim 9, further characterized in thatcertain of the members of each set are selectively interconnectible forswinging in unison.

1. A crop conditioner adapted to advance over a field and having crop gathering and conditioning means including a pair of horizontal transverse rolls cooperatively rotatable to traject crops upwardly and rearwardly for return to the ground, a pair of rearwardly extending side supports spaced laterally apart behind the rolls, and transversely extending baffle means disposed between the side supports in the path of the trajected crops so as to change the trajectory, characterized in that the baffle means is freely pivotally suspended at only its upper portion between the side supports to hang freely into the crop path in a normally vertically extending position and yieldable to swing freely from and back to said vertical position under varying forces imposed on said baffle means by the trajected crops.
 2. The invention defined in claim 1, further characterized in that a transverse support extends between and is carried by the side supports and the baffle means depends from and is pivoted to the transverse support for free back and forth swinging.
 3. The invention defined in claim 2, further characterized in that the baffle means comprises a plurality of separate plate-like members disposed in side-by-side relation and independently pivoted to the transverse support for individual free swinging.
 4. The invention defined in claim 3, further characterized in that certain of the members are connectible to each other for swinging in unison.
 5. The invention defined in claim 4, further characterized in that the connectible members are relatively laterally shiftable on the transverse support into partially overlapping relation to each other for swinging in unison.
 6. The invention defined in claim 5, further characterized in that each member of a pair of connectible members has an upper end of inverted U shape hooked over the transverse support and said upper ends are relatively differently dimensioned so that one can be telescoped into the other.
 7. The invention defined in claim 3, further characterized in that the members are selectively and relatively laterally adjustable along the transverse support so as to vary the horizontal length of the baffle means.
 8. The invention defined in claim 7, further characterized in that the side supports are hingedly connected at their forward ends to the conditioner for selective relative adjustability toward and away from each other so as to vary the lateral distance between their rear ends.
 9. The invention defined in claim 3, further characterized in that the transverse support has an intermediate abutment thereon and the members are grouped in sets respectively at each side of the abutment.
 10. The invention defined in claim 9, further characterized in that certain of the members of each set are selectively interconnectible for swinging in unison. 